


Let Me Guess

by marcicat



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-26
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 13:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/736436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcicat/pseuds/marcicat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity’s still not sure how Laurel’s business trip led to Thea hanging out in her office.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Me Guess

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: mentions of drug use and addiction.

DAY 1

She had news alerts set for all the Queens — side effect of working for the company — so she knew, in a peripheral sort of way, that Thea had been arrested. And she wasn’t in jail, clearly, so something had been worked out. A deal, maybe. Community service?

What she didn’t know was how Thea Queen had suddenly become her problem.

“Let me guess. You need silence while you’re working.”

Felicity didn’t bother turning around. “Thankfully, no.”

Thea had been in her office for just under an hour at that point. (Fifty-three minutes, not that Felicity was counting, except for how she definitely was.) Oliver had been there too, for the first three minutes. In that time he’d mumbled a half-assed explanation that included variations of both ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘thank you’ — for which she wasn’t sure whether to be insulted on her own behalf or Thea’s — and disappeared.

“So you don’t mind if I talk?”

Thea had spent the first half hour or so wandering around, before settling into a chair and focusing seemingly all of her attention on Felicity. “Do you have something to say?”

“Should I?” (Oliver thought his sister had no idea what he was doing. Oliver was clearly an idiot.)

They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Felicity sighed. “You started it,” she said.

“Believe me, this was not my idea,” Thea replied, gesturing around the room. “I wanted to go to the Batcave.”

Felicity looked back at her computer. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Really. Let me guess. Secret lair under the club?”

Well, that got her attention. She turned in her chair, taking a more careful look. How had Thea figured out that particular secret? “How did you —?”

Thea just rolled her eyes. “I’m an addict, not an idiot. Why the fuck do you think I’m in rehab?”

Felicity rolled her eyes right back. “I thought you were doing community service.”

Thea looked pointedly around the room again. “Does it look like I’m serving the community right now? No, you’re my keeper for the day. The week, probably, while Laurel does her whole business trip thing. You’re supposed to make sure I don’t get arrested.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to make sure you don’t do anything that might get you arrested.”

“Well, that’s a little hypocritical.”

Felicity sighed. It was going to be a long week.

 

DAY 2

So, Thea definitely knew about the vigilante thing. And apparently she wanted to talk about it.

“Let me guess, he sold you on the whole ‘playboy with a heart of gold’ thing, right? Did he do the broody danger-face?”

“What?”

She’d gotten to work an hour early, figuring she could at least get some work done before it was time for more Queen family drama, but Oliver and Thea were waiting when she arrived. No explanation at all, but Thea was wearing pajama pants and a coat that clearly wasn’t hers, and neither of those seemed like good signs.

“You know, when he stares soulfully into your eyes like he’s Leia and you’re Obi Wan? He practices that in the mirror, I think.”

(Oliver had handed her a takeaway tray with two coffees and a bag that turned out to hold half a dozen breakfast sandwiches, then left without a word.)

Both coffees had been for her, as far as she could tell, since Thea was already holding one. “This isn’t a game,” she said carefully.

Thea gave her a look full of teenage disdain. “Please. He’s the one dressing up in a costume and shooting arrows. His disguise is a hood and a voice modulator, and he still thinks thumb drives are the pinnacle of portable technology. His support network is two people.”

Felicity must have shifted, somehow, because Thea’s eyes widened. “He told someone else. Who?”

She flinched, and she had no idea how Thea was reading her so well, but she said, “ _Tommy?_ Tommy knows? Christ, and he thinks I’m the one with problems.”

“Thea.”

“No. This is getting ridiculous. You know the one thing Tommy Merlyn and I have in common?”

She actually seemed to be waiting for a response, so Felicity shook her head. Thea said, “We’ve both spent years — years — coming in second to Oliver.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t think he can trust Tommy?”

“I think he launched an investigation into our mom, and spent last night watching me sleep so I wouldn’t sneak off. But Tommy — Tommy’s in his massive guilt blind spot, right alongside Laurel and Detective Lance. I don’t think he actually trusts them, as much as he thinks he would deserve it if they betrayed him.”

That was — not something she’d considered, actually. And not exactly the level of insight she was expecting. Still. "That's a little harsh, don't you think?"

Thea gave a short laugh and shook her head.  "He's using you as a babysitting service, and you think I'm being too harsh? Did he even ask if this was all right with you?”

No. “He did bring coffee. And sandwiches.”

“Yeah, no. That was me. I’m just not allowed to hold hot beverages near him right now. I think he thinks I might ‘accidentally’ drop one in his lap. Mine was iced.”

Felicity thought about that for a minute. “Thanks, then.”

“You’re welcome.”

 

DAY 3

Thea seemed determined to convince her that Oliver was bad news, and Felicity seemed unable to make it clear that she was already convinced. It was just — well, you could know something was going to end in a train wreck and still find yourself watching it.

“Did he tell you he kept getting kicked out of school? Or that the first drugs I took were ones I found in his room, after he got lost at sea on a pleasure cruise with his girlfriend’s sister? He doesn’t have a track record of making good choices. Five years of living lord of the flies style certainly didn’t improve things.”

(Thea had showed up on her own that morning, looking like she hadn’t slept. Felicity had been handed a coffee and given a curt, “Bad night; don’t ask,” so she’d kept quiet. It lasted for less than an hour.)

“Thea, your brother —“ She trailed off, or maybe Thea cut her off.

“My brother died five years ago. He’s not ever coming back.”

That was enough to halt the conversation for a while longer. Felicity finished a few reports that had been waiting since the weekend.

“Besides, he’s just exchanged one type of addiction for another, you know? More dangerous, even. Definitely less legal.”

Felicity shrugged, because she was so not going there. That was part of the deal. Admittedly, it was a deal she’d made with herself, but that didn’t mean she was eager to break it. “Adrenaline’s a hell of a rush,” she offered.

Thea hmm’d and spun in her chair. “I wonder if he needs a sidekick?”

That was enough to make her turn around, but Thea was looking at the ceiling, or at least pretending to. “Not really,” Thea said, making a face when she saw Felicity watching her. “Adrenaline makes my hands shake.”

“I think he probably could use a friend,” Felicity offered, because why not? It was true, and it wasn’t like anyone else had a better shot at it.

Thea stared at her. “What about you?” she said finally.

“He doesn’t trust me.”

“And you think he trusts me? No, I mean where are your friends in all of this?”

She stayed silent.

 

DAY 4

On Thursday, Thea switched her focus. (Felicity should have guessed she wouldn’t let it go. Annoying persistence was apparently a family trait.) “So what’s in it for you? Carrying a torch?”

“No.”

“Have you at least kissed him?”

She had, actually. “I don’t think he’s interested in —“ There really was no good way to end that sentence.

Thea ran with it anyway. “Oh my god, let me guess, him and Diggle? Are they hooking up? That was fast. I mean, not for Oliver, but generally speaking.”

And Felicity really didn’t want to get into Oliver Queen’s relationship style, least of all with his little sister, so she just shrugged.

“Is that why he’s spending so much time in the Batcave? That would explain so much, actually.”

“They do spar a lot,” Felicity said. “I mean, as far as I know.”

Thea pointed a finger at her. “So you have been there! Don’t tell me about it, I like to imagine there’s at least one place where Oliver’s idea of decorating isn’t bleak despair.”

“I’ll keep my mouth shut, then,” she said.

“No, tell me about you, instead,” Thea said. “All I got from Oliver is that you’re good with computers, which is —“ She made a frustrated gesture around the office. “Like he would even know, right?”

Felicity tapped her fingers on the desk. (She’d spent years just far enough under the radar to be above acceptable, below standout. What was it with Queens and picking her out from the pack?) “Not much to tell, really. Blond hair, blue eyes, office job. My middle name is Meghan. I have a cat.”

“Ugh, you are so lucky. My middle name is _Dearden_.”

They both sat in silence for a few seconds, contemplating that. Then Thea said, “So, a cat? You have pictures?”

 

DAY 5

Friday brought iced coffee for both of them, and Thea in footwear that wasn’t slippers. Oliver waved from the hallway before disappearing again. “You’d think with you and Diggle helping him, his plans would be getting better, not worse,” Thea said.

That was certainly true. But Thea was still his family, so Felicity tried to shrug apologetically. “Sorry. He’s not exactly a listener, you may have noticed.”

Thea fiddled with her straw. “He needs to think end game, or at least some kind of strategy beyond flashy parkour tricks and dart guns. He can’t keep being the poster boy for both sides in this thing.”

“Not to mention the pesky legality issues,” Felicity said dryly.

Thea waved a hand. “Would he listen to you about this?”

She hesitated. “Probably not. Tech stuff, maybe. Not strategy; that’s all him. Diggle can sway him occasionally, I think.”

“Diggle avoids me like the plague,” Thea said, making a face. “He thinks I’m a bad influence, or something. He has a sister, though, right? Does she know?”

Felicity was already typing, searching. “Yes, on the sister, sort of. Carly. She’s his sister-in-law, works at a restaurant. I have no idea if she knows.”

“Well, that’s an angle.”

“The restaurant does deliveries. It looks like we’re in the radius. Barely.”

She and Thea exchanged a look. “I could eat,” Thea said.

Felicity shrugged. “It’s a start?” (Maybe it was a start.)

But Thea nodded enthusiastically. “Really, we just need for him to see the potential here. It’s practically a gift-wrapped opportunity. Save his poor sister from a life of dissolute tramp-ery by turning his own life around to a path of good citizenship, or whatever. Why not use the moment?”

“And what about you?” Felicity said.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind having my brother back.” She hesitated, then added, “Batman doesn’t have any siblings, did you know that? At best, I get sent off to school and everyone forgets about me again. At worst —” She didn’t finish, but Felicity could imagine the rest.

“I don’t think you’re a dissolute tramp,” she said.

The look Thea gave her was somewhat doubtful. “Thanks.”

“I’m serious. And you’re welcome.”

(It was definitely a start.)


End file.
